Campinas, 3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

1

Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

William Ulate RodríguezBiodiversity Informatics Unit

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

2Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Costa Rica Today

Evolution of key indicators from the 2000 UNDP Human Development Report

INDICATOR UNIT 1940 1960 1980 2000

UNDP Human Development Index

Coefficient N.D. 0,55 0,75 0,71

Population 1.000 656 1,199 2,276 3,943

Poor Homes % N.D. 50 19 21

Life expectancy Years 46,9 62,5 72,6 77,4

Child Mortality 1.000 123 68 19 10,2

Literacy % 73 84 90 95

Per capita PIB1990 US$

0,702 1,08 2,022 4,028

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

3Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Costa Rica TodayNational Income for some of the Main Products

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

4Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

What is INBio?

National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica

Non-governmental non-profit organizationDeclared of public interestCreated in 1989Strategic alliance with SINACwww.inbio.ac.cr

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

5Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Mission

“To promote a greater level of awareness of the value of biodiversity, as means to ensure its conservation and improve the quality of life of human beings.”

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

6Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

SINAC

National Conservation Areas SystemCollections from Protected AreasPartnership allianceInformation needsCapacity buildingParataxonomists

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

7Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Categories

Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

8Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Digitalization

Information on four levels:

1. Specimens

2. Species

3. Ecosystems

4. Genes

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

9Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Digitalization

1. Information on specimensGBIF as a first step.

Resources vs. workload.

Growing trust.

2. Information on species.Beyond basic collection information.

Standards and Protocols

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

10Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Digitalization

3. Information on ecosystems UNESCO’s classification

EML (CI’s TEAM)

4. Information on genesA few years ago, Genomics’ goals viability was considered almost unreachable and could be easily underestimated…

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

11Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Categories

Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

12Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Data Access and Interoperability

Global and Thematic NetworksUsing XML, Web services, SOAP, DiGIR

More data structured & accessible– ABCD (Access to Biological Collection Data) Schema– TDWG’s SDD (Structure Descriptive Data) subgroup

Semantic Web (ontology)– Plant Ontology Consortium (POC)– Inga bella

            

                 

 

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

13Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Categories

Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

14Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Electronic Catalogue of Names

Global Taxonomical Impediment

Several taxonomical hierarchies– Species 2000, ITIS, Nomencurator

Morphological and molecular taxonomy

To develop in situ conservation actions we understand it might not be necessary to know all biodiversity that is being protected, but we might need to know it to assure we are being successful.

               

          

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

15Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Categories

Digitalization Access and Interoperability Electronic Catalog of Names Outreach and Capacity Building

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

16Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Outreach and Capacity Building

Building Mutual Trust among stakeholders

How to take that information to decision-makers hands at the right time?Being there

Are initiatives really generating information for end-user needs?Needs defined by end-users come out either too

specific or too ambiguously (don’t know/anything)

                             

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

17Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Outreach and Capacity Building

Technology should help by...– Accelerating the publishing process– Bringing feedback on the access to information

providers– Granting access to scientifically validated

information

Impact on conservation might be a relevant reward to information providers and the means to get to the users’ real needs.

            

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

18Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports

during the first 16 months of operationbetween May 2001 and Oct. 2002

Total external queries:Total Countries:

1. U.S.A.(3443) 11. Venezuela (50)

2. C.R. (2864) 12. Japan (49)

3. Spain (294) 13. Belgium (46)

4. Mexico (289) 14. Argentina (39)

5. Colombia(100) 15. Netherlands(37)

6. Canada (92) 16. U. K. (34)

7. Germany (85) 17. El Salvador (28)

8. Guatemala(80) 18. Sweden (21)

9. Brazil (62) 19. Austria (16)

10. Peru (62) 20. Chile (15)

7.9 thousand40 countries (54% from America)

21. Australia (14) 31. Italy (7)

22. Ecuador (13) 32. Norway (7)

23. Nicaragua (12) 33. Panama (5)

24. Russia (12) 34. Portugal (5)

25. France (11) 35. Israel (4)

26. Puerto Rico (11) 36. Bolivia (3)

27. <Unknown> (10) 37. Cuba (2)

28. Korea (8) 38. S. Africa (2)

29. Switzerland (8) 39. Malasia (1)

30. Honduras (7) 40. Ucrania (1)

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

19Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Atta Effective queries to Atta’s dynamic Web-reports

during the first 16 months of operationbetween May 2001 and Oct. 2002

Most wanted:1. Plants

2. Insects

3. Mollusks

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

20Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Atta (Querying statistics from May 2001 to Oct. 2002)

Very different types of Institutions (367):

– Academic

– Museums

– Conservation institution

– International Cooperation

– Agricultural Research

– Pharmaceutical

– Internet Service Providers

Humboldt-Universitaet zu BerlinUniversite Catholique de Louvain

Australian Museum

The Nature Conservancy

Commission of the European Communities

U.S. Department of AgricultureAgriculture and Agrifood Canada

Numico Research (The Netherlands)

Tokyo Telecommunication Network Co., IncJaring (Malasya)Andinatel S.A. (Ecuador)

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

21Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Challenges

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

22Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Challenges

Mutual Trust

Intellectual property rights.

Scientific culture: won’t share until published

ITC capacity and network culture

Communications infrastructure

Lack of standards on information quality

Doubts in quality or difficult to verify

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

23Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Issues

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

24Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Issues

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

25Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Challenges

We need:– scientifically validated,– relevant,– representative,– up-to-date,– multiple scales, – accesible

information.

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

26Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Challenges

Friendly tools that generate reports for decision-making (politicians, policy-makers, resource managers, etc.)

Capacity building at individual, institutional and country levels

Relevance in conservation and sustainable development.

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

27Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

Biodiversity Information Challenges

We are betting that sharing public information will bring more knowledge and we expect to increase know-how in return to share it again.

3-6 March, 2004

Inter-American Workshop on Access to Environmental Data

28Scientific and Technical Issues on Collection and Access to Biodiversity Data

THANK YOU